Unending Nightmares
by Seph
Summary: Set in the storyline after episode 16, but before 17. The Sanzo party stop at a wealthy city, but there's actually more trouble than they thought there would be.


Author's Note: First attempt at writing Saiyuki. Hakkai is harder to write than I thought a genki man would be. The way he spontaneously say interesting things makes it double hard for a person lacking imagination such as myself. But anyways, please enjoy.  
  
Chapter 1: Arrival   
  
"Sanzo! Hey, Sanzo! I'm hungry..." Goku complained from the back seat of their dragon jeep.  
  
The weather was great that day, with not a cloud in the sky. For miles and miles ahead of them, Gojyo could see nothing but a vast background of blue, lightening in color as it stretched further away from him. It was strange, how the sky above was always darker than the piece by the horizon. It's just all part of the same sky, but the colors are always uneven. And by the time he got to the horizon point and looked up, the sky was still darker than the horizon ahead. Some things just couldn't be explained.  
  
"Be quiet, monkey boy!" If he couldn't figure it would, then there was no point in thinking about it. Teasing Goku was a much more worthwhile past time. The half water demon placed his hand on the brown haired kid's head and pressed down, provoking shouts and more complaints from the younger boy.  
  
"Get your hands off me, you perverted kappa!" Goku attempted to flail his arms and hit the red haired man, but being pressed down was a major disadvantage. The fact that his arms were shorter than the older man's wasn't exactly an advantage either. When all else failed, he turned his pressed head to face the monk sitting up at the front. Sanzo was always Goku's last resort. "Hey, Sanzo! The kappa's picking on me again!" He wailed at the top of his lungs.  
  
Already annoyed by Goku complaining of his ever present hunger, Sanzo was not in the greatest of moods when Gojyo decided to tease the ape too. Now that their stupidity inolved him was enough to make him turn around and hit the two trouble makers on the head with his paper fan. "Can't the two of you ever be quiet!?"  
  
"Oi, Sanzo..." Goku looked senselessly at the angry monk as Gojyo released his hold on his head.  
  
"Hmph, just shut up, both of you," the blode haired monk said rather coldly before he turned back around to watch Hakkai's driving.  
  
That was a typical morning for them, Gojyo thought as he hung an arm out the side of the moving jeep. there was a pattern in their daily routine of annoying one another and coming out to be friends in the end. He would find something to tease Goku about, and the hot headed monk would turn around and shout at the two of them when he could no longer stand them. Not that he liked getting shouted at by Sanzo, but there was something between them that he liked better than his gambling days. At least he knew these friends would stick up for him when he was in danger.  
  
"I'm still hungry," the monkey youkai whined as he sunk to the bottom of his seat.  
  
"Now, now, don't worry, we'll be at the next town soon." Taking his eyes off the road for a second, Hakkai turned and smiled at the starving boy.  
  
"Town? What town?" Sanzo turned a page of his newspaper before he looked past it at Hakkai. "We just went past a town not so long ago, there shouldn't be another one so soon."  
  
His attitude still carefree, Hakkai smiled and calmly pointed to the walled in city that laid right in their path ahead of them. In the middle of it stood a large castle that gave the whole place a gloomy atmosphere. "That town."  
  
Goku was overjoyed to see the structure ahead of them. To him, it meant one thing, food. "Waiii! They have to have food there!"  
  
On the other hand, Sanzo refused to give up his pessimistic comment. "There's not supposed to be a town there... but it doesn't hurt for there to be one." He calmly went back to reading his newspaper.  
  
Moving from his seat, Gojyo sat forward from his slouched position just so he could hang an arm around Sanzo's shoulder. "Just relax, will ya? It's not like the town's going to eat you alive." His other arm came to a rest around Hakkai's shoulder. "And hey, do you want to join me tonight at the gambling houses? I'm sure we can make a fortune together."  
  
Before Hakkai could reply to Gojyo's invitation though, Sanzo already used his gun to answer for the two of them. "Get your hands off me or die, kappa."  
  
The red haired man blinked and stared down at the exorcism gun barrel that was inches from his nose. Well, he should have expected that reaction, he told himself as he took his hands off and raised them beside him in a mock version of surrendering. He followed it all with an uncaring shrug. "Che, suit yourself, monk. Be all uptight for nothing. Don't say I didn't warn you." He moved back to his seat and crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
And for the whole time, the monkey was laughing.  
  
  
Regardless of the gloomy appearance of the town's exterior, the interior was thriving with activity. People were bustling about with their own things to do, basically just carrying on with their own lives. The roads were wide and paved with cobblestones, so even despite the large amount of people on the streets, the group of four could still drive their jeep around the crowds and market stalls. The whole city had an air of richness to it.  
  
"I'm hungry. Hun~gry." Goku's head popped up from behind Sanzo's shoulder. "When are we going to eat?"  
  
"Shut up, you mindless ape." The monk looked around at the wealthy looking town. It looked like they could spend a comfortable day here. It was just as well, this was probably their last stop before heading into the barren land ahead.  
  
"You know, the brainless ape's right for once. I'm hungry too, and we're out of food." Gojyo sat back and stared at the sight around them. Even though he's hungry, he was still on the lookout for potential dates that may be hanging about.  
  
"Who are you calling a brainless ape, you perverted kappa!"  
  
"Do you want to rumble, stupid monkey?"  
  
"Bring it on, red cockroach!"  
  
For the second time that morning, Sanzo turned around in his seat to glare at the two idiots behind him. This time, he only held his paper fan threateningly over their heads. "Shut up, the both of you!! Can't the two of you get along for once?!"  
  
While the threesome was busy arguing amongst themselves, Hakkai noticed the large amount of people that was staring at them. It didn't take a lot of figuring out to realize they must be attracting a lot of attention. "My, my. It looks like we're standing in the spotlight." Since the other three were busy, it was up to Hakkai to do the explaining to the crowd. "They are always like this. Please, don't mind them." He closed his eyes and smiled at the people warmly, therefore managing to convince everyone that they weren't trying to kill one another enough for the citizens to stop staring and start leaving. When the crowd cleared, Hakkai calmly continued to drive the jeep.  
  
"We should reach an inn soon," the driver of the jeep said as their vehicle slowed down further to adjust to the large amount of human traffic on the road. After the little incident though, the road directly ahead of them remained clear of people. Gojyo wondered if it had anything to do with Goku's idiotic looks or Sanzo's droopy eyed scariness.  
  
"An inn! Food! Food! We can get food!" Less than 5 minutes of calm had enveloped them before Goku's hyper remark broke through it.  
  
"I'm not sleeping in the same room as with you tonight, dumbass ape! Your snoring keeps me up for the whole night!" The red haired man paused for several heartbeats prior to grinning smugly and resting his arm on Goku's head. Lowering his voice as if it was a secret between the monkey and him, he said in a suggestive stage whisper, "I would rather do some other activities with a nice chick for the whole night."  
  
"I can't help it if I snore!" Goku rudely threw Gojyo's arm off his head and glared back at the half youkai. When he didn't get much response with his death glare, his golden eyes softened and the mean look was replaced with a childish innocence. "And what would you rather do?"  
  
"Um, er..." Now Gojyo had no idea how to answer that without corrupting the kid's mind. Not that he had a problem with doing that, but then Goku would make a fuss and start calling him perverted again. Gojyo didn't feel like getting smacked around by Sanzo's fan for the rest of the day whenever Goku commented on his pervertness, not like he doesn't do if often enough, and he knew he just can't hold his own tongue from biting back. Not to mention they were in the middle of a very busy street.   
  
"Oh dear," Hakkai said in his good nature tone. Gojyo was distracted from Goku's seemingly innocent question by Hakkai's lighthearted voice. It amazed him how Hakkai could act as if nothing in the world could go wrong, which was funny, considering all the pain Hakkai went through in the past.  
  
"Well, what would you rather do? What, what, what?" Gojyo turned to stare at Goku, which unashamedly stared back at him with an intense expression of curiosity. Several seconds passed thus, with the red haired man unwilling to surrender the boy's eager look, before he finally sighed in an exasperate manner and gave in.  
  
Feeling somewhat defeated by Goku, the kappa began to open his mouth when the sight of their inn stole the words right from his mouth. His jaw just hung open as he stared wide eyed at the large structure ahead of them. Slowly like a turtle raising its head, he tilted his head back to take in the whole building's size. Red eyes traveled past the cracks in the stone wall, past the small slit windows, past the boarded up parapets, and went all the way to the top where the sun was shadowing a single large tower.   
  
The jeep jutted to a slow stop in front of the edifice. Still smiling as brightly as the sun behind the dark tower, Hakkai announced what was obvious to the group, "We're here!"  
  
Gojyo found the words difficult to believe. It wasn't as if he didn't believe Hakkai's announcement, but the fact that the dark forbidden looking castle they saw from afar was actually the inn they were going to stay at was something even he didn't expect.  
  
"Fooood!"  
  
For some reason, Gojyo had the feeling they have a long night ahead of them. 


End file.
